EPT Snowfest: Day 1B, level 7 & 8 updates (blinds 400-800, 75 ante)

12.40am: Geshkenbein leads at closeAs we wait for the official count we're calling it for Vladimir Geshkenbein tonight. Full wrap and details of the day to follow shortly. -- SB

12.32am: Last three handsThe final three hands have been annouced. Bagging and tagging to take place shortly. -- RD

12.25am: A new challenger steps upVladimir Geshkenbein has thrown his hat into the ring for the Day 1 chip lead. He's got somewhere in the region of 200,000 and may have edged ahead of Michael Tureniec and Philip Meulyzers. -- RD

12.25am: Elky knocked out by MacPheeElkY was down to just 5,000 when he shoved with [a][3] and ran into Kevin MacPhee's pocket sixes. The Team PokerStars Pro failed to catch his bullet and is out. -- RD

12.20am: Philip Meulyzers two opponent's to snatch leadMichael Tureniec has competition for the overnight chip lead from his neighbour Philip Meulyzer. He got involved in a three-way all-in that worked out well for him as he now has 191,400, around 6,000 ahead of the Swede. The three players and their hands were:

Georgy Abashidze: A♠J♥Byron John Kaverman: K♦K♣Philip Meulyzer: A♠A♦

The board ran 4♣T♥9♠6♥5♠ to leave a very happy Belgian with an ironic mountain of chips. -- MC

12.08am: Elky fails to trap MacPheeBertrand 'Elky' Grospellier raised from middle position to 1,700 and was called by Kevin MacPhee in the cut-off. ElkY made a continuation bet of 2,225 into the 8♦8♣T♣ flop and MacPhee made the call.

Both players checked the 6♦ turn and the 2♥ river. ElkY tossed over J♠8♠ for flopped trips. MacPhee had failed to bite when the Frenchman had shown weakness - it's not an easy tablr. -- RD

12.02pm: Eames oustedI saw John Eames stood up holding his "homage to Michael Tureniec style grey sweater" and feared the worst. He confirmed he was out after five-betting with eights and running into Zsolt Vasvenski holding kings. He said Vasvenski was very active and capable of four-bet folding. This time he had the goods though. We might see Eames in the €10,000 side event later in the week. - MC

11.55pm: Tournament snap shotMichael Tureniec is still the run away chip leader at the moment but Wendy Van Veenendaal has also emerged with a big stack with some 135,000.

We've dropped beneath the 200 player mark and the clock has 40 minutes left. -- RD

11.42pm: Back from breakPlayers are back in for the last level of the day.

11.28pm: Break

11.26pm: ElkY joins the champions table"Oh, this table just keeps getting better and better," said Luca Pagano with no little amount of irony dripping from his lips as Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier arrived in seat one. There are now four EPT winners sat around Pagano, who himself is second to ElkY in the overall EPT Leaderboard.

The other three EPT winners are Kevin Stani, Kevin MacPhee and Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree. -- RD

11.20pm: Tureniec builds 200k super stack With exactly 200 players left in today's field Michael Tureniec has emerged as a gross chip leader. He's got what must be around 200,000. I said earlier that he tore through the later levels of Day 1 in Copenhagen and that there was a very real chance that he would do the same here. -- RD

11.16pm: Twin exitThe De Meulder twins, Mattias and Christophe, have been eliminated. They busted at virtually the same time which is a bit freaky. --MC

11.13pm: More for TureniecMichael Tureniec is up to an impressive 144,000 chips now after taking a pot off Bodo Sbrzesny. I picked up the action on the turn where Tureniec check-called a 3,200 bet. At the river the board read K♣3♥J♠6♦J♦ and Tureniec checked again. Sbrzesny studied the board for a while, seemingly looking for a way to justify a bet, but he checked behind with Q♣T♣. It was a good job too as Tureniec tabled A♠J♠. The German dropped a little too 86,000. - MC

11.07pm; Keys still going wellI caught up with James Keys and he said his day is going well. He's up to 96,500 and 20,000 of that came recently after he flopped bottom two-pair against an opponent holding top pair. The chips went in and Keys claimed the scalp. -- MC

11.05pm: Forget trophies and prestige, it's all about the moneyYou may have noticed a new link appearing on the right hand side of the screen. The EPT Snowfest prize pool has now been released, top prize to the winner on Friday being €390,000 from a total prize pool of €1,636,390. The top 72 players will be paid. Check out all the pay-out details on the official prize pool and payout page. -- SB

10.57pm: Boeree doubles through PaganoLiv Boeree has had a tournament lifesaver thrown to her by Luca Pagano. The Italian raised from the small blind to 1,400 and Pagano shoved from the small blind for 8,075. James Sudworth passed his big blind and Pagano made the call.

Pagano: A♠Q♥Boeree: K♦J♦

The board ran out 2♥9♠7♠K♥5♦ to double Boeree up to 17,000. -- RD

10.50pm: Naujoks runner-runner out of townTeam PokerStars Pro Sandra Naujoks has been eliminated by Philip Meulyzer after he hit running cards to make a straight. I got to the table late but it seemed as if Naujoks bet, called off her stack on a 4♥8♦Q♥ stack with 8♣8♠ for middle set. Meulyzer tabled a flushing A♥J♥ but ended up making a straight as the board ran out K♣T♠. He's up to 80,000 as a result. -- MC

10.45pm: Lehmanski faces El SayedA flop of 5♣2♥T♠ and some action on table 18. There was a bet by Max Lehmanski then a call from Sam El Sayed. The two players could be more unalike. Lehmanski is a youthful looking player in a red polo shirt, his blond hair was probably brushed one way this morning but now there's just a rumour of what it once said.

El Sayed on the other hand is a big guy, an alpha male who wears a St. Chrisopher medal, a baseball cap and sunglasses and chews on a cigar. El Sayed looks like he has a job away from poker that involves putting out oil rig fires or leading ragtag groups of maverick engineers on shuttle missions to blow up meteors threatening to destroy the Earth.

On the Q♥ turn arrived next Lehmanski bet another 4,500 which El Sayed called for a 5♥ river card. Now Lehmanski checked. El Sayed did the same, turning over what would be a winning J♠T♦ to take the pot and move up to around 70,000. Lehmanski drops down to a perilous 11,000. - SB

10.40pm: The Level 7 updateWith everyone fed, players have now entered the stretch of Day 1B, just two levels remaining until the close. Leading right now is Zoltan Szabo who has around 134,000, some way ahead of the rest; top Team PokerStars Pro right now is German Florian Langmann with close to 50,000.

I'm also happy to report that Joao Nunes is not out, despite my initial suggestion that he was. We're delighted to have you back Joao. -- SB

10.35pm: Neuville the Viktor in this handPokerStars qualifier Pierre Neuville is up to 41,000 after scooping a pot against Viktor Wessmann. He raise-called a three-bet to go to a 7♥5♦K♠ flop where both players checked. The turn fell 6♦ and Neuville led for 3,550. Call. The river came 5♣ and Neuville fired again, for 5,500. Wessmann called but mucked upon seeing the Belgian's K♥Q♥. -- MC

Pair of Portu-geezers: Nuno Coelho and Joao Nunes

PokerStars Blog reporting team at EPT Snowfest (in order of political ambitions): Stephen Bartley (run a country), Rick Dacey (take over a country) and Marc Convey (visit the country). Photos by Neil Stoddart.